


Among Monsters

by Jongdaesdimple



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Halloween, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Blood, Monsters, Shapeshifting, Spooky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:00:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27144889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jongdaesdimple/pseuds/Jongdaesdimple
Summary: Jongdae's friends are really tired of hearing him pine over his crush and so they have a plan. Jongdae brings Chanyeol to the creepiest house in town and Baekhyun and Minseok help scare him. Everything goes to plan... until it doesn't.This isn't really horror, it's just spooky? Idk I have a super low tolerance for horror and I don't think it's scary.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay, Kim Jongdae | Chen/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	Among Monsters

Jongdae watches as Chanyeol passes the basketball to his teammate, Yixing. His biceps are fully on display in his uniform jersey and they look incredible when he passes the ball and when he shoots and when he’s drippingly and when he’s doing nothing. Chanyeol’s arms always look good. Chanyeol lightly jogs following Yixing in case he needs to pass it back. Jongdae can’t see it too well from the stands but he knows Chanyeol is breathing heavily which probably makes his lips look even more-

“Go Yixing!” Baekhyun cheers loudly for his boyfriend as he approaches the net. 

“You’ll distract him, sit down” Minseok says, pulling on Baekhyun’s t-shirt. 

“I know Jongdae is just here to shamelessly stare at Chanyeol but why did you come?” Baekhyun asks Minseok before sitting back down on the bleacher. 

“I actually like watching basketball unlike you two” Minseok scoffs “Plus if my two best friends are going to watch a game, I’m coming too.”

“I’m watching basketball” Jongdae lies “I want our team to win, I have school spirit.”

“You haven’t taken your eyes off Chanyeol. Seriously even when he’s at the other end of the court from the action, you’re still looking at him.” Minseok laughs. 

“How would you know that if you were watching the game like you said you were?” Jongdae challenges. 

“Yay Yixing! You’re the best!” Baekhyun yells loudly after Yixing does a layup. 

Yixing looks at the bleachers and smiles back at Baekhyun before giving him a sneaky little finger heart. Baekhyun smiles even wider. 

“Minseok’s right. Stop trying to pretend you aren’t completely head over heels for him and ask him out” Baekhyun says at a normal volume. 

“I need him to fall for me” Jongdae says firmly. 

“Like he fell in the pond a couple of months ago?” Minseok laughs. 

“Or like how he fell onto that chair when he walked into calculus?” Baekhyun adds. 

“How is he even good at basketball when he’s so clumsy?” Minseok asks. 

“Hey!” Jongdae frowns “He’s great at basketball and his clumsiness is cute.” 

“Ask. Him. Out.” Baekhyun repeats. 

“No, I told you I want him to fall for me” Jongdae continues to pout. 

“Then take him to that creepy abandoned house on the edge of town. I heard it’s haunted” Minseok smiles “Fear brings people together. Plus it’s festive for the spooky season.”

“I’m not gonna be scared of some stupid creaking house” Jongdae laughs. 

“Maybe you won’t but I swear I’ve seen Chanyeol get scared of his own shadow” Baekhyun says as he continues to watch his boyfriend play.

“That’s a good point” Jongdae says considering the idea “Hey what if you guys came too to help scare him?”

“I’m down” Minseok nods. 

“Sure” Baekhyun agrees. 

“Great, I’ll ask him after the game” Jongdae smiles. 

“How are you gonna do that?” Minseok asks. 

Jongdae looks over at Baekhyun before pouting and blinking exaggeratedly. 

“I’m not smuggling you into the locker room Jongdae. That would be weird.” Baekhyun shakes his head. 

“Why? You get to go in” Jongdae says as his pout changes into an angry pout. 

“Cause I’m dating a member, you aren’t.” Baekhyun answers. 

“Yet” Jongdae adds. 

“Ugh, fine whatever” Baekhyun sighs. 

“Thanks, Baek” Jongdae says before hugging his friend. 

The game ends, their school won 24-19, and Jongdae follows his friend to the locker room. Jongdae smiles as he sees Chanyeol’s back. Chanyeol’s facing the wall as he ties his shoelaces, he’s also wearing a tight black t-shirt and black shorts. Baekhyun explained they should wait a while so they’d all have gotten changed out of their uniforms but Jongdae wasn’t exactly expecting Chanyeol to wear something so... distracting. Chanyeol still hasn’t seen Jongdae yet but Jongdae’s starting to feel a little nervous at the idea of talking to his crush. 

“Baekhyunnie!” Yixing says happily as a deep dimple forms on his cheek. 

Baekhyun runs up to hug his boyfriend. Yixing responds by quickly wrapping his arms around his smaller boyfriend. 

“You were amazing today” Baekhyun says in a muffled voice as he continues to tightly hold onto Yixing. 

“Thanks to your cheering” Yixing replies sweetly. 

“Can you two keep the disgusting flirting to a minimum?” Chanyeol asks as he turns around “Some of us are still painfully sing- Jongdae!”

“Hi” Jongdae waves as Chanyeol’s gaze falls on him. 

Chanyeol looks so adorable when he’s surprised. He parts his lips and his eyes get huge in a way that reminds Jongdae of a cute cartoon character. 

“What is he- what uh what are you doing here?” Chanyeol stutters, clearly still surprised about Jongdae’s unplanned appearance. 

“I’m here to invite you to a fun Halloween thing” Jongdae says confidently with a smile. 

“Oh! Cool!” Chanyeol smiles back looking less scared than he did originally. 

“Yeah it’s a spooky house, thought it would be more fun to explore with you there” Jongdae laughs, he’s not lying, Chanyeol’s reactions to scary things are amazing. Plus comforting a distressed Chanyeol is a great way to get some cuddling in. 

“Just me?” Chanyeol asks the smile fading from his face. 

“No!” Jongdae says in response to Chanyeol’s reaction “Minseok will be there and... Baekhyun!”

“Yup” Baekhyun says joining the conversation “I’ll be there.”

Baekhyun shoots Jongdae a disappointed look when Chanyeol isn’t looking. It’s not like Jongdae is lying, his friends will be there, just not in the way Chanyeol assumes. 

“Can I come?” Yixing asks innocently. 

“Sure...” Baekhyun says slowly before whispering something in his boyfriend’s ear. 

“Oh yeah ok gotcha” Yixing nods in response. 

“So when is this... spooky house thing?” Chanyeol asks, still looking a little unsure. 

“It’s... tomorrow night! At 8! At the abandoned house on Gordon Street” Jongdae answers. 

“Ok” Chanyeol nods “I’ll be there.” 

“Great” Jongdae smiles widely. 

~=+•+=~

“Tell me again why you thought it was a good idea to tell Chanyeol we’d be here?” Minseok asks as the trio walks up to the creepy house. 

Abandoned really isn’t a strong enough word for this house. It’s partially destroyed. The only reason a real estate company hasn’t torn it down and built a new place on the property is because it’s caught up in a legal battle over some sort of rare wildlife or something. So it remains there, half-burnt, broken windows, a hole where the front door is supposed to be, graffiti on some of the outer walls and rotting wood stairs leading to the front porch. 

“I told him you guys would come because he seemed iffy about it just being us” Jongdae answers “it’s not a big deal, I’ll just tell him you guys were sick.” 

“You know what they always say, the basis of a good relationship is lies” Baekhyun laughs “and creepy haunted houses.” 

“Just go in the house and set up some scares, Chanyeol will be here soon” Jongdae dismisses. 

“Fine” Baekhyun sighs “Come on Minseok let’s go set everything up.”

Minseok and Baekhyun pick up their bags of props and walk into the broken-down house. Minseok insisted they bring a first aid kit as well in case Chanyeol gets hurt when he inevitably hurls himself at the wall or floor. Jongdae agrees that’s probably a good idea. 

After a couple minutes of waiting, Jongdae gets a text from Baekhyun and Minseok saying they’ve set everything up as planned. After a few more minutes, Chanyeol finally arrives. 

Jongdae tries to suppress a crazy huge smile as he sees Chanyeol but it’s just so hard. Chanyeol’s wearing one of his enormous gray hoodies and ripped black jeans. He wears stuff like this all the time but Jongdae can’t help but think about what it would be like if he stole it, it would probably even smell like Chanyeol, that nice expensive cologne he wears and-

“Hi” Chanyeol says, somehow making himself look small. 

“Hey” Jongdae replies as a larger smile spreads across his face. 

“So we’re the first here?” Chanyeol says softly before looking at the creepy house

“Actually Minseok is kinda sick and Baekhyun and Yixing are busy” Jongdae lies. 

“Busy doing what?” Chanyeol asks, turning his attention away from the house. 

“Eachoth-“ Jongdae starts before Chanyeol blinks at him with his beautiful innocent-looking eyes “just a couple things I guess, young love you know?” 

“So are we rescheduling this thing?” Chanyeol asks with a hint of hope in his voice. 

“Nah, we’re both here, might as well have some fun” Jongdae smiles. 

“Right” Chanyeol nods before visibly swallowing. 

“Well let’s go in! I can give a pretty good tour” Jongdae smiles before he starts to walk to the front door “I know all the stories about this place.” 

“Didn't it just have a small electrical fire?” Chanyeol asks “I thought they just abandoned it.”

“That is only a very small part of the story” Jongdae answers before walking up the creaking stairs “I’m surprised you don’t know more than that, it’s the most well known creepy story in town. I couldn’t go on a camping trip without hearing it.”

“I don’t really like scary stories so” Chanyeol says while making it up the last step safely. 

“Then I have a lot to tell you about” Jongdae smiles before opening the door “After you.” 

“Thanks” Chanyeol says with a polite smile. 

They walk into the house and it’s surprisingly bright inside. It’s definitely dark but for an abandoned house you’d expect it to be pitch black. The moonlight streams it from many different places which is the only reason it’s not that dark. Jongdae still turns on two flashlights and hands one to Chanyeol just to be safe though. As much as he would like to lightly scare Chanyeol, he doesn’t want him getting hurt walking into a desk or something. 

“So all you know about is the electrical fire?” Jongdae asks as he starts shining the light at the walls to look for anything Minseok and Baekhyun may have set up. “You think the family moved out because of one small fire?” 

“It burned through the roof” Chanyeol points out before quickly following Jongdae. 

“That’s true but they could have fixed it.” Jongdae answers as they walk out of what appears to be an entryway and into another open room “the electrical fire was just the last straw before they decided never to come back, not even to sell it.”

“W-what do you mean?” Chanyeol asks, staying very close to Jongdae. 

“Well this house is very old, one of the oldest in the entire county” Jongdae says before pausing to think “oh maybe that’s why it’s in a legal battle.”

“What?” Chanyeol asks, a little surprised at the quick change in Jongdae’s tone. 

“Never mind that part doesn’t matter” Jongdae dismisses as he continues to look for things his friend set up “but it is very old and it was once very beautiful. The last family that lived there was nowhere near the first to live in this house. In fact, they claimed the house was haunted by people who had lived there before them.”

“Like ghosts?” Chanyeol asks in a very scared voice. 

“Maybe demons” Jongdae smirks “but ghosts would make more sense because a lot of people have died here.” 

“W-what?” Chanyeol asks. 

Jongdae smiles to himself as he feels a gust of cold air. It could easily be wind from one of the broken windows, or his friends could be responsible but either way he’ll use it to his advantage. 

“Did you feel that?” Jongdae asks before looking at Chanyeol. 

“I-it was probably the wind” Chanyeol reasons even though it clearly scared him.

“At least you have that big hoodie, my sweater really isn’t as warm as I thought it would be” Jongdae frowns. 

“Oh” Chanyeol says softly before shuffling closer to Jongdae “I can’t really give you my hoodie cause I’m only wearing a t shirt under but if I stand closer is it better?”

“Yeah it is thanks” Jongdae smiles, best plan ever. 

“So why did the family think the house was haunted?” Chanyeol asks and he’s so close now that Jongdae can feel his breath. 

“Now you’re interested in creepy stories?” Jongdae smiles. 

“No-well- it’s just that I need to know now” Chanyeol clarifies. 

“That’s cute” Jongdae mumbles to himself hoping Chanyeol won’t hear it “it was pretty basic haunting stuff, sounds coming from in the house, voices, things moving around that sort of thing.” 

“Right” Chanyeol answers. 

“It would make sense this place was haunted considering how many people died in this house” Jongdae repeating his previous statement. Even though he already said it he feels Chanyeol tense slightly at the words “Mostly normal stuff  old age, the flu, things like that.”

“Oh” Chanyeol seems to sigh in relief. 

“But there were other weird deaths.” Jongdae continues “Unsolved murders, animal attacks-“ 

“Inside the house?” Chanyeol asks as they walk into yet another empty room. Jongdae is really disappointed in the amount of scary stuff his friends set up. 

“Yup, inside the house, it was weird and one guy’s official cause of death was fear.” Jongdae answers. 

“You can die of fear?” Chanyeol asks, sounding really concerned. 

“You can, it’s not common, especially not for young people with fully functioning hearts.” Jongdae comforts Chanyeol. 

Jongdae continues to look around the room for things his friends left before a large banging sound from upstairs causes Chanyeol to jump. He accidentally stumbles into Jongdae who just smiles. 

“H-how did that not scare you?” Chanyeol says catching his breath. 

“I’m not easily scared” Jongdae chuckles. 

“Yeah but that was-“ Chanyeol’s cut off by another loud bang “oh god.”

“Listen it’s ok, the roof is partially open remember? A branch probably blew in and banged on the floor” Jongdae says before trying to comfort Chanyeol with a light touch on the arm. Chanyeol flinches but once he understands he lets Jongdae rub his arm comfortingly. 

“S-so they just didn’t like the ghosts and had a fire so they moved out?” Chanyeol asks, probably just trying to start a conversation to avoid thinking about the banging upstairs. 

“Sort of, they were trying to wire the house with electricity when it spontaneously caught fire, they were all perfectly fine but they insisted the ghost had something to do with it. So they never went back in, no one fixed it, no one bought it and it’s been like this ever since.” 

“At least they were ok” Chanyeol says softly. 

“That’s true” Jongdae mumbles before walking out of the completely empty room in search of one with fake blood or at least one of the props they brought. Were they only supposed to be on the second floor? Where are these props? Minseok and Baekhyun are on the second floor, as directed by the plan they made but didn’t they leave something on the first floor? 

“Chanyeol?” Jongdae asks, realizing he might have walked too fast while he was caught up in his thoughts. 

Jongdae turns around and uses his flashlight to look for Chanyeol but he doesn’t see him. 

“Chanyeol!” Jongdae yells as he starts walking back to where he was before. 

Jongdae gets a little worried he might have lost him but he hears a quiet little “here” in the corner of the room. Jongdae moved his flashlight to the source of the sound and sees Chanyeol in a corner, on the ground with his knees up against his chest. Chanyeol covers his face from the bright light and Jongdae lowers the flashlight to not blind his crush. 

“I thought I saw something” Chanyeol softly “it was in the corner of my eye but I swear I saw something running.”

“And you thought sitting in a corner was a good defence?” Jongdae laughs a little before grabbing Chanyeol’s hand and helping him up. 

“Where else was I going to go?” Chanyeol asks “it felt safe... at least I knew it wasn’t behind me.” 

“That’s a good point but other than a squirrel or raccoon I don’t think anything will be running around this house” Jongdae reasons as they walk back to where Jongdae was taking them. 

Truthfully, Baekhyun or Minseok technically could have been running in the house but he doubts they’d leave the second floor. 

Jongdae continues to lead Chanyeol around the first floor looking for anything that his friends might have left for them but he can’t find anything even slightly scary. 

“Maybe we should head upstairs” Jongdae suggests. 

“I-is that even safe?” Chanyeol asks. 

“Yeah, it’s fine people go upstairs all the time” Jongdae says casually before they walk back towards the stairs. 

“If you’re sure” Chanyeol mumbles. 

Jongdae smiles, it seems like Chanyeol has gained a little confidence, he’s not even shaking anymore. Jongdae directs them both to the main staircase of the house and they start walking up. Although the stairs outside are rotting and a little scary to walk up, the stairs inside are nearly in perfect shape. They’re a little weathered down but perfectly stable and safe to walk on. 

The upper floor is inherently creepier than the bottom floor. The hall is dark, obviously, with peeling wallpaper and slightly chipping paint on the doors. The flooring is also bowed, probably because the wood got rained on through the hole in the roof. It makes it a little more dangerous to walk on but as long as they walk slowly they shouldn’t trip... although Chanyeol can trip on his own feet.

While the furniture in the house was all taken out soon after the family left, some things upstairs were left there. Only things of little value like photo frames, children’s toys and some particularly terrifying doll. 

“Oh god I forgot what dolls were like 50 years ago these are horrible” Jongdae says shining his light on a doll on the floor. 

If it were a plastic doll from 50 years ago it might not have been as creepy but this is a porcelain doll and there’s something truly horrifying about its face. Jongdae can’t even place his finger on what it is but it’s just creepy. 

“That’s just sad” Chanyeol says looking at the doll. 

“You’re not scared of that thing?” Jongdae asks looking at its cold dead eyes “You’re scared of everything though! No offence... honestly I’m kinda freaked out by it.”

“It’s sad, the kid left their doll behind when they moved out. She didn’t even get to keep it.” Chanyeol says sadly. 

Jongdae looks over at Chanyeol and thinks about what he said. Jongdae knew Chanyeol was sweet and caring but it still surprises him a bit that while he’s in a house he’s terrified of, he’s looking at an abandoned doll and only thinking about the person who had to leave it behind. It’s heartwarming. That being said Jongdae still has a feeling that awful doll is possessed and if he sees it move at all he will smash its face in. 

Jongdae moves on, searching for anything his friends set up. So far it seems like they’ve been really lazy because Jongdae hasn’t found anything, that doll wasn’t their prop. 

Jongdae leads Chanyeol into one of the bedrooms as he planned with his friends. Sure enough, once they’re inside, the door slams shut, just the way Jongdae had planned with his friends. 

“The door!” Chanyeol exclaims, turning around to look at it. 

Jongdae looks over at Chanyeol and notices something weird. His eyes are almost shining back greenish light like they’re glowing. It reminds Jongdae a bit of when you take a picture of a cat but why are Chanyeol’s eyes doing that? 

“It’s drafty up here, you saw the hole in the roof” Jongdae explains, still looking at Chanyeol, hoping he’ll figure out what’s making his eyes look weird. 

“Right yeah, must be that” Chanyeol says as he puts on a smile and looks at Jongdae. 

When Chanyeol turns his head the shine from his eyes is gone and Jongdae almost wonders if he imagined it. 

Jongdae dismisses the thought and uses his flashlight to scan the walls for anything interesting. Finally, he finds something, claw marks through the pulling wallpaper. 

“Those are weird” Chanyeol says, trying to stay calm. 

“Yeah...” Jongdae says before walking closer towards them “whatever did this must be at least as tall as a human.”

“O-oh” Chanyeol answers eloquently “that sounds... dangerous? What if it’s still here?”

“Then we might find out what did this” Jongdae answers before shining his light somewhere else. 

“Jongdae?” Chanyeol asks softly. 

“Yeah?” Jongdae answers. 

“Could you hold my hand?” Chanyeol asks even more quietly than before “I’m not scared- I’m just- I don’t want to get lost?”

“Good idea” Jongdae smiles before taking Chanyeol’s hand in his. 

Minseok is truly a genius. This is working out perfectly. He’s made Chanyeol a little scared, nothing traumatizing, but gotten him to hold his hand. Maybe another door closing will spook Chanyeol into his arms! He can only hope for more skinship but this is already a huge win in Jongdae’s book. Chanyeol’s hand is so warm and big, it feels comforting, even if Jongdae isn’t the one who needs any comfort. 

There’s nothing more other than the scratch marks in this room but there are still plenty of rooms upstairs to explore. Jongdae just hopes Baekhyun and Minseok are hiding well enough so he and Chanyeol won’t accidentally stumble into them. 

“Jongdae you believe in the supernatural?” Chanyeol asks. 

“Like ghosts and demons?” Jongdae asks before opening the door the “wind” shut. 

“More like goblins and ghouls? Monsters and stuff” Chanyeol clarifies. 

“Not really” Jongdae answers before shining his light down the hall looking for the next room to explore. They could explore one of the rooms to the left or right of the hall but there’s one door at the end of the hall that intrigues Jongdae.

“Not at all?” Chanyeol presses further “never even read about them?”

“Nah I’m more into haunting and stories like that” Jongdae answers before directing Chanyeol to the door at the end of the hall “Monsters are cool I guess but I’m just not interested.” 

“Ok” Chanyeol says softly. 

Jongdae lets go of Chanyeol’s hand and reaches for the door handle in front of them but it doesn’t move. Jongdae tries to wiggle it loose some more but it just won’t budge. He would put more force into it but he doesn’t really want to break it. 

“I think it’s locked” Jongdae concludes. 

“Let me try” Chanyeol says, stepping towards the door. Jongdae moves to the side to give Chanyeol a try but even Chanyeol can’t open it “maybe there’s a reason it’s locked...”

“Maybe there’s something creepy locked up in there” Jongdae suggests before pointing his flashlight away from the door and towards one of the other doors upstairs, he notices something’s different though “Hey Chanyeol, weren’t all these doors closed?” 

“Yeah, they- oh” Chanyeol says, turning around and looking at one of the now completely open doors. 

“Bet something wants us to go in there” Jongdae smiles knowingly before grabbing Chanyeol’s hand. Mainly just because he wants to hold his hand again. “Let’s go!”

“Right- just go right into the room some unnamed thing wants us to go into” Chanyeol mumbles as Jongdae pulls him towards the room “Such a good idea.”

“It is a great idea and I am sad you don’t trust me” Jongdae smiles so Chanyeol knows he’s not serious. 

When they enter the room there’s an odd feeling. The entire house is naturally drafty but this one doesn’t seem to have any sort of airflow and it’s unnaturally quiet. It’s almost like one of those recording studios with all the sound-absorbing foam except there’s no foam here, there’s even a window and the door is still open. 

“I don’t like this room at all” Chanyeol says quietly while squeezing Jongdae’s hand. 

Jongdae has to agree with Chanyeol in this case, there’s something seriously weird with this room but he’s still going to explore it. Jongdae pulls Chanyeol along as he flashes his flashlight at various parts of the room looking for anything interesting. It doesn’t take Jongdae too long to find some blood in the corner of the room. Chanyeol almost jumps out of his skin when he notices it but he takes a deep breath and calms down rather quickly. 

“That’s not human blood” Chanyeol says very matter-of-factly, Jongdae shoots him a questioning look before he rephrases “I mean- I hope it’s not. How could it be?”

“How is there a pool of blood, human or otherwise, in this room?” Jongdae points out and he can physically feel Chanyeol tense up. 

“A raccoon... killed a squirrel and brought the body somewhere else?” Chanyeol suggests. 

“Must be something like that” Jongdae nods before looking around the room for anything else.

As they continue to look they hear scratching noises around the wall. Jongdae doesn’t really appreciate it because scratching was never part of their plan, clearly, his friends want to mess with him too but he won’t give them the satisfaction. Chanyeol seems extremely focused on the sound, he doesn’t even seem to be breathing anymore. Jongdae can’t blame him, in this room with no sound, the scratching stands out. The scratching continues along with some thumpy walking sounds around the same wall and Chanyeol seems to get more and more agitated. 

Jongdae notices his hand getting progressively sweatier and as Jongdae was just about to comfort his clearly distressed crush, he feels a burning pain in his hand. 

“Ow” Jongdae says as he pulls his hand away from Chanyeol’s and drops his flashlight in favour of clutching his hurt hand. 

Jongdae looks up at Chanyeol for some sort of explanation but Chanyeol is still completely focused on the scratching, his eyes are doing the weird shiny thing and Jongdae starts questioning if this house isn’t full of some sort of psychoactive mold or something. There’s a lot of weirdness going on. The scratching stops and Chanyeol turns his attention to Jongdae. Jongdae expects him to address his hand but Chanyeol doesn’t seem to notice there’s anything out of the ordinary and Jongdae starts wondering if it was just in his head. His hand shows no signs of being burnt after all. 

“Let’s check out a different room” Chanyeol says seemingly swallowing his fear. 

“Yeah sure” Jongdae agrees. 

Jongdae leads Chanyeol out of the room and right as they walk into the hallway two figures run past them at full speed. 

“There’s something in the house!” Baekhyun yells as he runs down the hall. 

“Get the fuck out!” Minseok adds as they reach the stairs. 

“Wait who-“ Chanyeol starts. 

“Baekhyun and Minseok” Jongdae admits sighing. 

“What?” Chanyeol asks. 

“I know I said they weren’t coming but truth is, they came to help scare you cause I thought that would be more fun.” Jongdae says honestly. 

“Well that worked, I hated the scratching, I thought that-” Chanyeol cuts himself off “wait didn’t they say something’s in here?” 

“Oh nah, I’m sure they just wanted to scare us” Jongdae dismisses. 

“Uh right well, I would kinda rather we leave” Chanyeol says nervously “I mean they might not be kidding and I know I tried to hide it but I’m really terrified. I only came in here because I wanted to...“

“Yes?” Jongdae asks, prompting Chanyeol to continue talking. 

“I just really like spending time with you” Chanyeol says looking down “and I also might just really like you.” 

“I like you too, Chanyeol” Jongdae smiles widely before grabbing Chanyeol’s (slightly warm but more normal temperature) hand. 

“Really?” Chanyeol smiles back before his smile drops “then can we please get out of here I hate it so much I want to leave.”

“Yes-yeah let's go right away but I swear there really is nothing in-“ Jongdae starts but is cut off by a loud banging sound that rings through the house. 

Chanyeol practically jumps out of his skin at the sound and Jongdae really starts feeling bad for bringing him into the house. 

“It’s just the wind closing the door” Jongdae says in a soothing voice, trying to comfort Chanyeol. 

“Jongdae it didn't close a door, it opened that one and it was locked” Chanyeol says trembling while pointing at the door at the end of the hall.

Jongdae looks at where Chanyeol is pointing and sure enough, the once locked door is now open. It looks like it wasn’t even unlocked, something really strong just broke through the wooden frame and kicked the door free. 

“This house is really weak, it still could have been a strong gust of wind” Jongdae answers before rubbing Chanyeol’s back “Come on, let’s just leave.” 

Before either of them have a chance to leave, a long dark shadowy arm claws at the floor in front of the now wide-open door. While Chanyeol starts shaking even more than before, it just brings a smile to Jongdae’s face. 

“Yixing?” Jongdae laughs “Wow Baekhyun really wanted to try to scare me huh?”

The arm retracts away from the door leaving nothing but a few of an unlit backspace. 

“Jong-Jongdae I don’t think-“ Chanyeol says while taking a small step back. 

“We’re leaving now though and Baekhyun and Minseok left already so if you want a ride home-“ Jongdae starts before a foot and soon a whole body walks into view. 

Walking probably isn’t the right verb, more like unnatural, crawling while standing if that’s even possible. It’s almost like one of the joints is broken or maybe attached in the wrong direction. 

“Very nice performance but you’re really only scaring Chanyeol” Jongdae applauds. 

“I really don’t think-“ Chanyeol starts. 

The person or rather, creature walks past the door and into a beam of moonlight streaming in from the broken roof. Whatever it is, it is certainly not Yixing, no makeup job could be that good. It’s not wearing clothes and its skin is rough and bumpy like it has some sort of disease which would make sense considering it’s also gray in colour and appears to have lost all hair if it were ever human. While it’s standing up like a person, its legs look broken, they jut out in weird directions but Jongdae still has a feeling it could run faster than him. Its arms are also disproportionately long and its hands are tipped with black extremely long claws. 

“What the fuck is that thing!” Jongdae yells as he feels a pang of fear for the first time all night. 

“A ghoul” Chanyeol answers with his shaky voice before pulling Jongdae’s arm “let’s go.” 

“You know what that is?” Jongdae says turning his attention to Chanyeol and forgetting his fear of the monster. 

“Jongdae, let’s get out before it attacks” Chanyeol says, ignoring the question while slowly backing up.

Before Jongdae can think more deeply about what Chanyeol said, the ghoul launches itself towards Jongdae. Jongdae freezes as the gray-skinned creature opens its blood-red mouth exposing its crooked sharp glassy teeth. Jongdae’s only thought as the thing approaches him is that he’s going to die because of something that doesn’t even exist. His heart beats even harder as his legs finally cooperate and he started to run away but there’s no way he’ll be able to make it out of the house before it grabs him in its bony clawed hands. He looks over at Chanyeol and desperately hopes Chanyeol will be able to run out of the house before the ghoul is done chasing Jongdae. 

But Chanyeol runs in the wrong direction. He runs straight at the monster putting himself in between Jongdae and the ghoul. Despite Jongdae’s internal logic telling him to keep running and not look back, Jongdae turns around and tries to stop Chanyeol. 

What happens next makes absolutely no sense in Jongdae’s mind, not that the past 10 minutes have made any sense either. Chanyeol runs at the ghoul but seemingly as it grabs him Chanyeol is set on fire. He hears a strangled inhuman scream as he closes his eyes because the light of the fire is too bright for his eyes. Jongdae shakes in fear before covering his face with his arms in a feeble attempt to defend himself from whatever’s going on. Quickly his fight or flight response takes over and Jongdae forces his eyes open as he attempts to run from the fire before tripping on the uneven wooden floor. Tears start running down Jongdae’s face as the fire approaches him. He starts getting up before the flames seem to dissipate.

Where the large fire was, Jongdae sees a large hairless wolf looking thing. Jongdae usually finds wolves somewhat cute even though he would never approach one but this one is anything but cute. The wolf is almost half the size of Jongdae and has dark blackish mangey skin, some small flames remain on its back. Jongdae has no idea what’s going on but his heart clenches at the sight of the still-burning wolf. It doesn’t seem injured by the fire though as it just calmly lays on the floor. 

Jongdae turns his attention away from the burning wolf and looks for the ghoul but there’s no sign of it, Chanyeol is also gone. 

“Chanyeol!” Jongdae yells hoarsely, but there’s no response.

Jongdae should run out of the house. He should leave and call the police but instead, he falls to his knees. He feels defeated and drained. Jongdae might not be afraid of haunted houses but this is far past a park attraction. Why didn’t he listen to Baekhyun and Minseok? Jongdae sobs on the ground still trying to process everything that just happened. All he wanted was a boyfriend and somehow he got him kidnaped... or burned to death or eaten.

“Oh God” Jongdae sobs to himself. 

“Jongdae?” A voice says startling Jongdae who immediately starts to shimmy on the floor away from the source. 

“Hey calm down it’s just me” Chanyeol says with a small smile. 

“H-How” Jongdae says not trusting it for one second, if ghouls exist so can shapeshifters “Prove it.”

“2 months ago I fell into the pond in front of the school and I lied and said it was because I tripped on a rock but the truth is I was looking at you smiling with your friends and walked right into it” Chanyeol admits almost too quickly for Jongdae to understand it “And I’m not a ghost or anything, take my hand.”

Chanyeol extends his hand to Jongdae who high fives it instead to verify. Jongdae quickly gets up off the ground feeling confident that this is in fact Chanyeol. He takes a deep breath and calms himself before talking. 

“How did you survive that?” Jongdae asks. 

“I...” Chanyeol says looking away “I bit it.”

“You were on fire” Jongdae points out.

“Yeah I can do that” Chanyeol says looking almost shy as if he didn’t just fight off a flesh-eating ghoul “but I’m not on fire anymore.”

“You’re the burning wolf” Jongdae says piecing it all together “you’re a fire werewolf” 

“Kinda except werewolves don’t exist” Chanyeol corrects “I’m a fire dog actually, not wolf.”

“Did you kill the ghoul?” Jongdae asks. 

“Yeah-You’re not scared that I can turn into a flaming dog?” Chanyeol asks a little confused. 

“No, you saved my life. Why would I be scared of you?” Jongdae laughs. 

“You are ridiculously brave” Chanyeol concludes. 

“You say that like it’s a bad thing” Jongdae says stepping closer “I’m careful, tonight was accidentally dangerous but apparently I have you to save me if something like this happens again.”

“It better not, ghouls aren’t supposed to leave graveyards” Chanyeol explains “I hate those things they’re so creepy.”

Chanyeol starts to resume his scared posture and Jongdae just smiles at him before approaching him and holding his hand for comfort.

“Why are you scared of everything if you’re this big bad fire wolf” Jongdae says more quietly now that they’re closer together. 

“It’s a phobia, there’s no rational reason for it.” Chanyeol answers “I could turn them into a pile of ash but that doesn’t mean they aren’t creepy and scary.” 

“You’re really cute” Jongdae smiles “But let’s get out of here. Next date we’re going to a nice well-lit restaurant.”

“Deal” Chanyeol smiles back “Can we go get ice cream at a corner store? I don’t really want to go home yet.”

“Ice cream sounds perfect” Jongdae nods. 

**Author's Note:**

> What a very me conclusion to the story. Did I trick you guys with the Chanyeol thing? ;) I’m really curious to know what you guys thought Chanyeol might be.


End file.
